Sheng Ri Kuai Le!

Yesterday started off with Kim, YangChiang, and I setting up traps for gerbils/jirds on a dune during a very hot day. Then Kim and I shaved the right toes of the jerboas to see if it would make a difference to how they interacted with the sand. I'm super excited about the results!

After a quick xiuxi (nap/rest), we were supposed to go with the driver to start work early and skip dinner. We heard that the cook was planning something special because it's our last night, and Sarah had gone in to look. When the driver hadn't arrived at his usual 20 min early, we got suspicious and decided to check into the dining hall. Awaiting us there was a huge banquet of amazing food that the cook had prepared for us. The banquet a few days ago completely pales in comparison to this one. There were apples, bananas, fuzhu tofu skins, cucumbers, bok choy with mushrooms, sprouts with jiucai, huge chickens, chicken feet, mushrooms, mutton soup, and many other things I couldn't identify. It was all laid out family style and everyone tried to sit around the huge table together, but there wasn't enough room, so we all stood up to eat. Then, Sarah and the cook brought us out 1 birthday cake each! Complete with birthday crowns and singing candles! They were beautiful!!! I couldn't believe that she managed to slip those past us even though we've been living together these past 2 weeks. Apparently she and YangChiang and the cook have been planning this since we got here. It was an incredibly sweet gesture and a wonderful way for us to all hang out together on our last night.

Part of banquet etiquette mandates that the guests of honor have to give toasts. In Kim's toast, my favorite part was when she said "I know some of you may not have very good English skills, or may have better English than you will let us know..." *huge laugh from the audience* "There's my answer to that! But we're still here for 1 more day, so please come talk to us if you want to!" After that speech, lots of people who we've never talked to came up and started conversations with us! I even got a confession of "like" from one of the boys. I wonder if public confessions like that are standard practice in China.

We got out to the desert a few hours later than we had hoped, but it was definitely worth it. We took all the data I need and were able to come back at a reasonable-ish hour. The plan for today is to pack up or discard all of our belongings. I'm really going to miss it here!